Asabee Hints Of Court Action Against BNI
A former Information Minister, Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, has hinted that he could be heading for the court following Sunday's encounter at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) during which officials of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) prevented him from leaving the country.
Officials of the BNI prevented Mr Asamoah-Boateng from travelling with his family, comprising his wife, Zuleika, and two children, when he was about to board a British Airways (BA) flight to London.
State officials said he was to assist in investigations being carried out by national security into the award of a contract to a company owned by Asamoah-Boateng's wife's sister, Irene Lorwia.
A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that Mr Asamoah-Boateng could leave the country after he had been invited and questioned. He could, however, not tell when the interrogation of the former minister would be conducted to enable him to travel.
Mr Okudzeto-Ablakwa said Mr Asamoah-Boateng had not been arrested, stressing that “he is currently at home and will soon help in the investigations”.
The former minister, however, told the Daily Graphic that he was already in consultation with his lawyers to know his next line of action.
He said he was travelling to the US with his wife and two children for a two-week vacation when he was prevented by the security operatives.
He explained that the “supposed BNI officials”, who did not even show their identity cards, had told him that they had been directed to invite him for questioning the following day.
According to him, he was accosted by men who told him that they were officials of the BNI at the KIA and was prevented from travelling.
Mr Asamoah-Boateng explained that he had almost completed his final departure formality when he was told that he had been invited to the BNI on Monday to help with investigations into the affairs of the former government.
He claimed that his human rights had been abused and wondered why his wife and children, who were not politicians, should be traumatised.
He said he had told the security operatives that he did not believe their assertion, since if it was true that he had been invited, he would have received a letter to that effect.
Asked whether he had gone to the BNI, the former Information Minister said he still stood by his position that he would respond to the invitation after he had been formally invited through a letter.
On when he would embark on the US journey, Mr Asamoah-Boateng said he was a free man and could travel as and when he wanted.
The case under investigation, according to sources, involves the award of contract by the Ministry of Information involving GH¢86,915.85 (¢869 million) to Plexiform Ventures for tiling of the floors of the offices of the minister and his deputies, as well as the washroom.
On May 29, 2009, the acting chief director of the ministry signed a letter on behalf of the current Minister of Information, Mrs Zita Okaikoi, asking the Finance Ministry to release money for the payment of the contract, although no job had been done in the washrooms.
This raised suspicion and the BNI was asked to investigate a number of persons, including Mr Frank Agyekum, a former Deputy Minister of Information, who has already visited the BNI to provide some answers.
In a related development, a legal practitioners, Mr Sam Okudzeto, says it was illegal for personnel of the BNI to seize the passport of Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng.
He said the travel passport is a right guaranteed by the Constitution and, therefore, should not have been seized without the express direction of a court.
Mr Okudzeto told Joy FM that if the government or any agency wanted to revoke a citizen's passport, it had to go to court to explain the grounds under which the passport needed to be revoked or seized.
“I think it is very important for us to appreciate that we are living under a constitutional regime; (we are) no longer in the situation where the military was in power, they arrest people, lock them up as they choose (and) seize their passports. A passport is a right that every citizen has a right to,” he said.
Quoting from the Ghana Law Reports, he said a case decided by the courts held that a “passport is the property of the individual. Let's not mislead ourselves simply because it is indicated that the passport is issued by the government of Ghana.”
On the specific issue of the BNI preventing Mr Asamoah-Boateng from travelling, Mr Okudzeto said the BNI had no right to do so without telling him what his crime was.
He said the BNI did not have any extra powers more than the police and it could not arrest a citizen without a warrant or defining the crime which a person is being invited.
A citizen, he argued, has the right to demand an arrest warrant at the point of arrest and the presence of his or her counsel before being interrogated.
“I do not know how the Deputy Minister of Information got himself involved in what happens in national security. BNI is a state security apparatus. It is not meant to be part of the work of government so that the Minister of Information should be explaining what BNI does,” he said.
He said the situation where government officials spoke for the BNI was fueling the perception that the agency is being used to persecute the government's political opponents.
“It is in government's own interest to try and extricate itself from what BNI does,” he advised.